Stickin' With Sam

(With Sam home for Thanksgiving break, we decided to do a video shoot today for her latest entry. We hope you enjoy it. — Dave Ruden)

This past weekend I went down to the University of Virginia to watch it play Duke in volleyball and see my friend and former volleyball and lacrosse teammate at Darien, Phoebe Maglathlin, play for Duke. It was really weird sitting on the sidelines watching her team play.

I felt I should be out there. It made me miss volleyball a lot.

It got me thinking about how I’d be in the semifinals in states at Darien now if I were back home. It was such a big part of my life.

Being part of the Darien volleyball program always made me feel special. It has a very strong tradition. As a freshman I had never played volleyball before, was so intimidated by the older girls and had no idea what I was getting myself into. My older sister Alex was on the team, loved it and told me I should try it.

I loved it right from the beginning. It was different, a lot of fun, really fast-paced and really confusing at first. It was kind of hard to learn it, but I pick things up pretty quickly and got the hang of it.

Lauren Phillips, another freshman, and I got to play with the seniors that first week. They all knew what they were doing and I was a little freshman not knowing what to do.

It probably took me about a week or so to get the hang of it because practices are so long. You learn a lot in four hours.

By my sophomore year I became a starter and played on teams that lost just one match my entire career, and won four league and state titles.

It seemed because of our success everyone outside of Darien rooted against us. Every day at practice Coach LaRusso would say we have a huge target on our backs, everyone is out to shut us down and we can’t let them do that.

There was always a sense of pride being part of the program. The team was known for being so good. It made me feel awesome that I was a part of it and I got to play for Darien. if I had gone to a different school my experience would have been totally different. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much because I never worked as hard for anything as I did in volleyball.

Every day Coach would teach me something new, something I look back on and say ‘Now I know why she did that.’ Darien volleyball will always be a part of me.

Watching Phoebe play made me realize how much I missed it. Even when I came home from fall break and practiced with the team a few days, I wanted to be back there and a part of it. No matter how hard it was.

People wondered why you would put yourself through all the hours and long practices, but I did it for the love of the game and our team was so tightly knit. We always trusted each other and knew we were going to be there. It was definitely a learning experience how to work with people as one. That’s a key in every sport.

I talk to my sister Charlett, who is on the team, all the time and she keeps me updated on how they are doing.

I wish the team all the best of luck in states this week.

This is Homecoming weekend at Richmond and after having a great Halloween weekend we get to kick off another one, with a big football game against Villanova. There is a big bond fire tonight that the football coach, Mike London, organized.

I’m planning on spending the weekend with my teammates and tomorrow is the big day, with the game and the tailgating. There will be a lot of people here, including a lot of alumni.

Halloween was a lot of fun. It’s definitely much different than home, where a lot of kids don’t want to dress up, but everyone dressed up here. I ended up wearing three different costumes on three different nights. It was my first Halloween to actually be with friends and stay out because I was always on curfew with the Darien volleyball team.

I really enjoyed the Halloween gift package my mother sent me. There were Oreos, decorative lights and candy. I used to take a lot of the candy that my parents would give to trick-or-treaters.

Fall ball is officially over and right now we are still practicing and conditioning to stay in the shape we are in. We still have a long time until our season begins. At Darien I always had volleyball in the fall to keep me busy and it’s very weird right now. I wish I had a sport to keep me busy.

School work is definitely getting harder as the semester is coming to an end. I really have to focus on getting good grades. I think I’m doing pretty well right now, somewhere in the B range, but I want to at least maintain that and hopefully get them even higher.

I’ll talk to you all next week!